When I was growing up, my parents had a rule for my sister and I (well they had many) but the particular one had to do with commitment. They told us that we could only choose one sport/ extracurricular activity at a time. We were not the over committed family that always had 3 soccer games, a softball game, church, and a girl scout meeting all in a weekend. The most I got away with doing was soccer and girl scouts at the same time. And this was permitted only because Girl Scouts met once a week for maybe two hours at a time. It wasn’t a huge time commitment, my parents believed it was important, and I liked it. They wanted to preserve family time and their sanity. I am so grateful that they did.

But I am noticing a growing trend that concerns me. First in society as a whole; that we are way to busy. I am totally guilty of this, so I am not preaching from any pulpit, that’s for sure. Secondly, many people, especially high schoolers, are over-involved and under-committed. Now, hear me when I say that. Over-involved and under-committed; how is that even possible?

To answer that question, I ask you to reflect upon what most colleges are looking for in a competitive applicant. They want a well-rounded individual, who has played a varsity sport, been the president of a club, while being involved in two other clubs, been involved in the community, and on top of all that maintained stellar grades and achieved great test scores. I feel like they are asking for their applicants to dabble and under commit to everything, just so they can attain that “over-committed” level that colleges look for. If there was a common mantra among current high school students, I’m pretty sure it could be, “Just do it for the app.”

The frustrating thing about this over-involvement is that instead of picking a couple of things that they love and committing to them and being super involved with them, students are doing things for the label, just so they can say they are “involved” on their college application. AND COLLEGES SEEM TO ENCOURAGE THIS! Though I’m sure every admissions counselor would say, “We would much rather you be deeply involved in a few things that you are passionate about, instead of a bazillion different things”; the activities section on the common app begs to differ. There are ten different sections to fill out describing your different activities and involvements in high school. And if you only fill out four of them, that’s leaving a lot of blank space on the application that decides your scholastic fate. Thus, students are driven to over involve themselves and under commit. It is impossible to be completely committed to ten different activities, maintain good grades, have some semblance of a social life, and still sleep for the 8-9 hours recommended for teenagers.

What is created is a “Do it for the college application” attitude. And one can assume how frustrating and annoying this attitude can be. Try taking already slightly noncommittal teenagers, throwing them into ten different activities, and telling them to be committed to every one. What you get is the bare minimum, a warm body in meetings, brain only half there, constantly thinking of all the other things that have to be done. The expectation is that we are able to do it all, while in reality we have no chance.

How would you spend your last days? Though this can be perceived as a fairly morbid thought, like “I have 3 days, 22 hours, 17 minutes, and 54 seconds to live, how am I going to spend it?” Or it can be an inspirational thought, a change inducing thought, one of great value, and one that can improve your life.

As human beings, we are always rushing to do something. Rushing to pick the kids up from sports, cramming to study for that super important final, dashing off to the grocery store to pick up milk and cereal, always going, going, going. I do this all the time. I am always squishing everything I can into my schedule so that between school, cross-country/track, church, and Fellowship of Christian Athletes; I have no time. I relish the days where I am so physically worn down that it is impossible for me to do anything except stay at home and spend time with my family. I don’t like these days because I like to be sick, I like them because they are a break from the grind I put myself through every day, day after day. I know you are thinking, “Why don’t you just stop? Why don’t you just do less?” Let me ask you to examine your life and your schedule. Does it look that much different from mine? I’m betting that it doesn’t.

I really like this video. It brings up so many thoughts and questions to ponder. Most of all, this video propels me to answer the question. How would I spend my last days? Since I don’t know how many days I have left, just like every other person on Earth, I think about this question in terms of how I will be remembered. In my lifetime, I want to have meaningful experiences, influence people for the better, and show people that they are loved. I want to make a difference. Now I know, that is so cliché. But bear with me.

If my goal is to influence and make a difference in people’s lives, what am I doing to pursue my goal? Most of the time, the answer is nothing, really. I don’t have profound conversations with every person I meet, I don’t appreciate the people around me enough, I don’t listen. I am a selfish person and 99.9% of the time the world seems to revolve around me. Is that what I want to be remembered for? Not at all.

I need to STOP going. I need to embrace interactions, relationships, and people. I need to realize that making a difference is going to be about the small things, not the big ones. I need to re-examine my life, look at all the things I do, and think, “Is this helping me influence the people involved? Am I making a difference here? Or am I spreading myself too thin, so that I am unable to build meaningful relationships with the people I am around because I am to busy to stop and chat as I am running to the next event?”

The width of one’s influence is nothing without depth. If I can’t be more that mere “Facebook” level friends with the people I am around, I will be doing less. My schedule, from this point on, is going to be filled with more free time. I’m not going to stop doing, I’m simply going to stop going and going. I am going to leave more time for family, friends, and building relationships with people. I’m going to live as if I was dying because that is the first step to achieving my mission of influencing and making a difference in other people’s lives.

What about you? How would you spend your last days? What do you want to be remembered by? It would be totally awesome if I had people join me on my mission to have an impact on the world by going from selfishness to selflessness. Leave a comment or send me an email, let’s influence the world together.